India's floods: Laws ignored, lives lost

India Today

As floods and landslides devastate India, from Uttarakhand’s Bhagirathi to Delhi’s Yamuna, the failure to enforce environmental laws fuels recurring disasters.

Transcript

00:00in the last few weeks we've seen nature unleash its fury rivers breaking barriers hills collapsing

00:10roads and buildings destroyed and it's happening more often almost every year and each time we

00:17ask could this have been prevented and yes if we followed the law

00:22India has several laws meant to protect both the environment and human life the Environment

00:32Protection Act 1986 the Forest Conservation Act the Water Act the eco-sensitive zone notifications

00:39state-specific zoning laws NGT and Supreme Court orders all of them are meant to ensure that roads

00:46buildings bridges and even cities are not built in places that nature wants to reclaim

00:52so what do these laws say under the Environment Protection Act specific rules have been created

00:57to govern construction and hilly terrain activities and river floodplains tree cutting blasting and

01:03slope stability every large project must undergo an environmental impact assessment and EIA which

01:09will consider what damage could it cause can it be prevented or reduced clearances are mandatory

01:15from multiple authorities and before any major construction begins but are we following these

01:21rules take the Dharali disaster in Uttarakhand for example buildings stood just meters from the

01:27Bhagirathi river channel this is violation of the eco-sensitive zone notification and that is what the

01:34experts and locals are asking most regulations regarding construction in the hills require soil and terrain

01:41analysis ban on construction over certain gradients but rules are often ignored the result landslides

01:49blocked roads collapsed homes what about trees and forests the Forest Conservation Act restricts

01:55cutting trees in sensitive areas using forest land for non-forest purposes diverting forest areas

02:02without clearance but footage from Himachal's Ravi floods show massive logs floating downstream and so

02:09how did so many trees end up in the river the answer is illegal and unregulated deforestation and it's not just the

02:17the mountains urban India is no exception under the water act the Central Water Commission must map flood

02:24plains define high-risk zones and feed data into every city's master plan these maps have to define no

02:32development zones in the flood plains high and medium impact zones where construction is tightly

02:37controlled but most of these laws exist only on paper Delhi is the perfect case study despite NGT

02:44is still not mapped it is riddled with encroachments illegal construction blocked natural water channels

02:54which reduces the river's holding capacity leading to annual floods in 2024 the NGT had fined the

03:02ministry of Jal Shakti and the CWC for failing to properly mark Yamuna's floodplain the Ganga cities are

03:08also at risk down river cities like Varanasi and Prayagraj face the same problem encroachments narrowing river

03:15channels creating urban disasters the bottom line is this India has the laws the Environmental Protection Act

03:23the Forest Act the Water Act the Eco Sensitive Zone Regulations NGT rules Supreme Court guidelines

03:29they are meant to protect lives not just nature but every time we ignore them we pay the price are we listening or

03:37waiting for the next disaster

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